I LOVE these lemon lime juicers/squeezers; a favorite kitchen gadget for sure. I don’t have the one for oranges (I should get one soon though, it would come in handy for oranges that are especially ripe and hard to peel). I do have the lemon and lime squeezers and I love them both. Whenever I need to juice a lemon for a recipe I just cut it in half and pop it into this squeezer and squeeze and I have instant fresh lemon juice with no seeds (a huge bonus), plus it squeezes every last bit of juice out of the lemon and I love not wasting an ounce of juice. The lime juicer works the same way. I am pretty sure I stole mine from my mom (she’s a pretty great mom) so I don’t know where they are from. You can get them all on Amazon; here is the link for the Lemon, Lime, and Orange squeezer. If you don’t want to get them on Amazon you can look other places, I think I may have seen them at Ross before and maybe try Target or Wal-Mart. Also, I think you could totally get away with just buying the Lemon juicer and have it juice your limes and lemons. I have both so I haven’t tried this but to save money I bet you could totally get away with one for both lemon and limes.

This is our very most favorite birthday tradition. It’s inexpensive and so much fun for my kids. They look forward to it just about as much as the presents. My mom started this birthday tradition with me and my siblings growing up and it was something I loved so of course I passed it along to my kids. It’s just a tension rod with rope and clothespins. You use the clothes pins to hang their favorite treats, small presents and balloons from. We hang it from their door the night before so it’s ready for them as soon as they wake up and walk out of their door in the morning. My kids don’t get a ton of candy and treats so this gives them something very fun to look forward to. They are usually telling me months in advance what they want me to hang on their door for their birthday. I love making birthdays at our house extremely special; it’s super important to me to enjoy the chance to celebrate them as an individual. I never want them to feel lost in the shuffle with a large family and this is just one way I try and make them feel like they are MY favorite.

This is so easy to make; all it is it is, is a tension rod like this. You can get them anywhere, Wal-mart, Target, or any place like that. You’ll also need some rope. I suggest rope not yarn; you don’t want something that tangles easy. Put your tension rod between your doorway and measure how long you want your string, cut it and then tie it in knots to the top of the tension rod. Get some clothespins like these; again these can be purchased at so many places including craft stores. Use the clothespins to hang the candy, balloons, presents whatever you’d like. Do this for your child’s next birthday and I am pretty sure you will be the coolest mom/dad ever! If anyone tries this I would love to hear feedback on what your kids thought.

What you need to make this easy Birthday Hanging Rod:

Rope or para cord like this (you could use any sort of rope that’s heavy duty from anywhere, maybe you can even find some in the garage:).

Clothespins like these. (these can be purchased a number of places as well).

Put it all together like you see in the picture or with my written instructions and you’ll have the coolest/easiest birthday tradition ever and your kids will love every bit of it.

*When we are finished with a birthday I leave the rope attached and the clothes pins on the rope and wrap the rope that has the clothes pins on it around the tension rod and store it with my wrapping paper. Then I just pull it out for the next birthday – just a tip for storing it (I hate clutter and like simplicity so that’s easiest for me).

Hands down these Contigo water bottles are my favorite. We have had/owned a lot of water bottles and these are by far the best. We’ve been using them for a couple of years now and I love them. They are perfect for sports, hiking, leisure, church, outings, you name it; they can go along with you anywhere. My kids are ALWAYS thirsty and so having these water bottles as companions has been a life saver more than once. Even my 17 month old toddler can drink out of these and has been for awhile. They are leak proof (I won’t say they haven’t ever leaked there has been a time or two they have leaked in my bag) but for the most part they are leak proof and I love that feature. The straw design makes them easy to drink out of especially for little ones (and I prefer drinking out of a straw myself so I love that part too). They are very durable we have dropped them MANY times and they hold up really well. I’ve bought other water bottles before and my kids drop them once and they bust, that is frustrating. They are easy to clean – I pull out the straw put it in the silverware holder in my dishwasher, pop open the spout and throw the top and bottle in the dishwasher as well, if you want to hand clean them they might get a little tedious but I just put them in the dishwasher. I really love these water bottles. There are other Contigo water bottles with different designs and spouts and I don’t like them nearly as much, this design is my favorite for the whole family. You can get the adult ones, and the kids ones on Amazon. We own all three sizes and have used the kids size and the 24oz for a long while and we love them, I am excited to try the 32oz one. My favorite place to get these water bottles is Costco (they are by far the best price at there) where they come in a three pack. If I remember right, the kids three pack was $14.99 and the adult three pack was $19.99. They aren’t super cheap water bottles but they are worth the extra $ for the quality. If you’ve read enough of my posts you know I try to be frugal but sometimes I find a product worth spending the extra $ on for the quality. I hate buying cheap stuff over and over again. I will say Costco doesn’t always carry these as a regular item mostly in the spring and then through the summer and maybe a bit into the Fall but they don’t usually carry them year round so snag them when you see them there if you want to try them. (more…)

Hi I'm Deb, here to share all my favorites with you. We all have a natural desire, when we come across something good, wonderful or just plain amazing to share it with others. Often those things we love and enjoy become our favorites. I have lots of favorites from, family and friends, exercise and nutrition, down to my favorite toy for toddlers or kitchen gadget that has saved my life. I love sharing things I love with others and hope you'll enjoy trying them out and maybe along the way you'll find a few new favorites yourself.